Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations
Franken, Al. 1996. Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations. Island Book.
Rating:
6
Summary:
Occasionally funny; gets old quick
Franken uses close to three hundred pages to try to illustrate why Democrats and their liberal ideologies and philosophies are a better approach to politics and social problems than are Republican ones. In doing so, he spends about 1/5 of the book calling Rush Limbaugh ‘fat’. Another fifth is spent explaining why Limbaugh is a liar and, in Franken’s words, an ‘idiot’ (a sentiment I am more inclined to agree with and definitely found more interesting than the continuous ranting that Limbaugh was obese).
In the mix, Franken uses his occasionally witty humor to attack several other famous conservative Republicans and illustrate why a large number of them are hypocrites, insensitive capitalists, and not very nice people. There isn’t much in the way of fair and balanced rhetoric as Franken considers Bill Clinton to be the greatest president of the twentieth century (even greater than FDR).
Franken also spends a good deal of time talking about two additional topics that are really unrelated despite his continued attempts to integrate them into his discussions – his family and his assistant Geoff. Franken continuously blames the poor quality of the book on the fact that he’s spending all of his time with his kids (unlike all of those ‘mean’ Republican conservatives). Of course this is all really supposed to be meant in jest, but after reading the book I began to wonder…
Review:
Despite sharing a liberal perspective on society and life, I didn’t really love this book. It started out pretty good with some funny commentary and rather creative presentation. But after the 80-something time Franken went on a rant about how fat Limbaugh is, it started to bug me. What does he being fat have to do with his political ideas? If he were the secretary of health, I could understand how it is relevant, but he’s a propagandist, not a nutritionist. There are also several ‘chapters’ that are only two to three pages in length that are really just excuses for why he didn’t do more research (I call them chapters because they start a new page, but whether they are really chapters…).
Which introduces a second issue. Despite claiming that Limbaugh is a liar and misleads or outright deceives his followers a lot of the time, Franken doesn’t employ traditional scientific/academic approaches to his presentation of data – only rarely does he actually cite sources. Though I must admit I am more inclined to agree with the information Franken presents because much of it sounds as though it at least closely resembles the information with which I am familiar (I’m a sociologist), it would have been nice if Franken had at least footnoted his data. As it stands, I would suggest that anyone that reads this book read it only for humor and not as a source of accurate information.
Some additional problems include the repetitiveness of the book. Despite what Franken seems to think, his political ‘expertise’ seems limited to just a few issues, which he returns to over and over. In short, he repeats himself a lot. Also, there is absolutely no continuity from ‘chapter’ to ‘chapter’; the book does not ‘flow’.
Overall, even though I would agree that Rush Limbaugh (and now Sean Hannity and Michael Savage) tends to appeal only to the uneducated who don’t question and refuse to think for themselves (which might also explain the appeal of Rush Limbaugh and the Republican party to religious conservatives), this book isn’t the best platform for presenting the counter arguments. Sometimes it is funny and there are even occasionally glimpses of brilliant writing, but it doesn’t take long to realize that Franken’s primary comedic tool is the insult. One or two insults are occasionally funny, but a book of insults can only appeal to people who are less interested in the issues than they are in attacking the opponent. Though Michael Moore occasionally stoops to this level, also doesn’t do a very good job of citing references, and isn’t particularly qualified to be writing on this topic, I think he does a better job of focusing on the issues and making sound arguments than does Franken. As a result, I would recommend Moore’s books instead of Franken’s.